Political leaders must face up to their duty and set more long-term objectives to guarantee sustainable energy and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, writes Frank McDonald
It is now 26 years since the late George Colley, then minister for energy, travelled to Jutland to see the first two experimental wind turbines built by the Danes. It's what happened afterwards that's so instructive: Denmark went on to become the world leader in wind energy while Ireland only recently started running to catch up.
By 2002, the Danish wind turbine industry was generating €3 billion a year in revenue, employing 20,000 people and supplying 18 per cent of Denmark's electricity demand. And Ireland? Despite having the most favourable wind regime in Europe, by the end of 2002 we had a mere handful of wind farms supplying just 1 per cent of our demand.
The situation has improved since then. Electricity generated by wind power increased by 70 per cent last year (admittedly from a low base) and Ireland is now expected to exceed the EU's 2010 target of generating 13.2 per cent of electricity demand from renewable sources - and wind is likely to account for 80 per cent of the total.
But 2010 is less than four years away, and it's clear that much more long-term objectives need to be set sooner rather than later, if we are to guarantee sustainable energy in the future and, simultaneously, reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. That will need a broad political consensus to underpin it, such as Denmark has achieved.
With less than a year to go before the next general election, the chances of all the Dáil parties following the Danish example are remote, as Green Party energy spokesman Eamon Ryan TD conceded. But he takes heart from previous Irish examples of the strong political consensus that emerged at times of crisis to "change tack". Ryan cited the Lemass/Whitaker era, when Ireland changed from a closed economy to an open one, and the "fiscal rectitude" policies of the late 1980s, when we needed to ward off national bankruptcy. He is convinced that a similar cross-party approach is now needed if we are to move from fossil fuel dependency to energy self-sufficiency.
"The principal problem is the lack of a coherent, strategic national energy policy," according to Noel O'Flynn, Fianna Fáil TD and chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee dealing with the issue. He pointed to the current National Development Plan (1999-2006), under which €6 billion was allocated for roads and just €145 million for energy infrastructure.
Eamon Ryan believes that long-term targets must be set, with 2050 as the horizon. "We should set out to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by two-thirds - by then, we're not going to have oil. Each step on the road to achieving that target is incremental, and we'll be forced to ask ourselves why we're building motorways everywhere."
For example, within a corridor just 30 kilometres wide to the north of Dublin, we could end up with four motorways - the M1, the M2, the M3 and the proposed Outer Orbital ring road - a situation without precedent anywhere in Europe. Yet our greenhouse gas emissions are nearly double what they should be under the Kyoto Protocol target.
It was Noel Dempsey, as minister for the environment, who signed up in 1998 to cap the increase in Ireland's emissions at 13 per cent above their 1990 levels in the period 2008-2012. Now, as the minister responsible for energy policy, he is about to produce a Green Paper on how we can substitute renewables for oil, gas and other fossil fuels.
The paper is also likely to deal with curbing energy waste by using it much more efficiently in power stations, homes and workplaces. Already, Dempsey has introduced grant-aid programmes for combined heat and power (CHP) plants and the use of wood pellets for home heating, as well as an excise relief scheme to promote bio-fuels.
Other innovative measures should include giving tax incentives or stamp duty relief to people buying new homes that are built to be more energy-efficient. Pending the adoption of stronger building regulations, this type of initiative would underpin efforts by local authorities such as Fingal County Council to specify higher standards.
The concept of "walkable communities", well-served by public transport, also needs to be promoted as an alternative to sprawl; cutting car dependency makes sense from an energy perspective, but it would also help to reduce levels of obesity, heart disease and other serious health risks, as the Institute of Public Health said last week.
One issue that urgently needs to be revisited is the introduction of carbon taxes, something that the Government flunked in 2004. As the ESRI has said repeatedly, this wouldn't involve an increase in the tax burden, merely a re-balancing in line with the "polluter pays" principle to encourage efficiency and cut carbon dioxide emissions.
The recent purchase of Lexus 450 hybrid cars for both Dempsey and Minister for the Environment Dick Roche was intended to "set an example". But this was no more than a token gesture, given that both Mary McAleese and Bertie Ahern have just got new Mercedes S-class cars, which have a fuel efficiency of only 10 kilometres per litre. Clearly, the President and the Taoiseach believe that the comfort zone they inhabit is the natural order of things. Like most of us, cocooned by the smugness of living in the world's second-wealthiest country, they haven't spotted the elephant in the room - climate change, and the urgent need to start getting out of fossil fuels.
"It's time we had a mature debate on need to face up to this," says Dublin City Council's chief planning officer, Dick Gleeson. "Because if we don't begin managing the future to protect it for our kids, and we end up boxed into a corner in 20 years' time because of our addiction to fossil fuels, then we're going to be in serious trouble."
It would also make sense economically. As Prof Kevin Leyden of West Virginia University has pointed out, even big business has discovered the green agenda. "Ireland benefited profoundly by embracing the last new wave of technology - computers - and would be well advised to note that green industry, products and processes are the next wave."
Fundamentally, it is up to the Government to lead change in society and plan for a sustainable future free from reliance on increasingly expensive and climate-damaging fossil fuels. Unless Noel Dempsey's forthcoming Green Paper on energy addresses the need for that transition to the post-oil era, it will be a waste of time.
